Cycling UK Forum

Sooper8 wrote:There is a post on this thread, where an ex-employee of the Potters Bar factory mentions that he worked in the section that made kids bikes. I can't find it now but it might have more info than I remember...

I think I found the post by cricklewood_graeme, so have dropped him a PM!

snappygear wrote:

Sooper8 wrote:There is a post on this thread, where an ex-employee of the Potters Bar factory mentions that he worked in the section that made kids bikes. I can't find it now but it might have more info than I remember...

I think I found the post by cricklewood_graeme, so have dropped him a PM!

We had another ex-employee over on the 'other' Viscount specific forum, but I think we scared him off with the amount of questions we asked !

My first Viscount was a tiny little racer like that one, except mine was in replica KP Crisps team livery - white with black decals. I was a (very lanky) eight, and mine had a sixteen inch frame too. In my case, zooming around on it planted the seed that led to me seeking out my Aerospace Pro a couple of years ago. I had my first ever proper bike ride on the Viscount, catching the train out from Sheffield to Worksop wiht my dad and peddling along beside him on his maaahooosive Carlton tourer. It is great to see another one after all these years. I would be interested to know what it weighs. It looks like a proper little bike with proper components on it, rather than a "kids bike" loaded down with the heaviest and worst parts.

I am pretty sure this Sprint kids bike was being produced at Potters Bar Trusty Viscount factory when I worked there in 1980 or thereabouts.

Here's a picture of a Viscount 'Fiesta' from a 1981 flyer.


Fiesta_age_6-10 by Cusqueno, on Flickr

Looks to be a similar age to the baby Sprint - judging from the decals - but obviously different. Still a 'real' bike though.

Cusqueno wrote:Here's a picture of a Viscount 'Fiesta' from a 1981 flyer.


Fiesta_age_6-10 by Cusqueno, on Flickr

Looks to be a similar age to the baby Sprint - judging from the decals - but obviously different. Still a 'real' bike though.

Very cool.

Now on the wish-list!

Would someone please remind me what other (rarer?) brake calipers Viscounts were occaisionally fitted with (other than Viscount branded/Weinmann)?

Was it Dura-Ace? It's been mentioned on here before but I can't stay awake long enough to work back through the thread!

Also a quick poll from those that have had their eye on Viscount/Lambert parts for longer than I have:

Which lambert/viscount branded components seem to come up more frequently -

HF Hubs with QR skewers
HF Hubs without QR skewers
QR skewers (pair) only
QR skewers (individual) only
Full 27" wheel set ups

I guess it just depends and is a case of waiting it out?

Thanks!

If it helps, the majority of mine are Shimano Tourney.

In answer to the next one...
I would say you might get a whole bike sooner and just as cheaply as a pair of wheels.

Last few weeks, a couple of Viscount have gone for £40's/£50's on eBay. Other than the extra expense on postage, that would be what you'd be paying for wheels (maybe?)

I'd love for some kids bikes to turn up and be lovingly restored and handed over to kids, so we can get the next generation excited about Viscounts. I mean, we won't be around forever, so we need them to take care of keeping the Viscount pride alive, right? I have already 'educated' a 15-year-old, who got the bike from his grandpa, to look after it and take great care as it's special. Not sure he really understands, but he's riding it almost daily.


As for most common: The Aerospace Sport was normally fitted with TourneyGS, the Pro with Crane, The Sprint with Huret/Sach Huret. I hope that Cusqueno can confirm this as he's got the catalogue (man, I'm still so jealous). I think the high-spec bikes (Aerospace) were all fitted with QR and the low-spec with solid axles.

With regards to getting complete bikes cheaply and using the wheels: can work well, but there are risks that you have to respoke the wheels or the hubs are damaged. Depending on how well they were looked after, or if some cowboy pitted the hubs when trying to remove the bearings. I have that problem with the hubs I built wheels around. It needs some special gap-filler (not sure if we used loctite, definitely not loctite 641) to have them run smoothly. But at least you'd get the rims, definitely great if you get Milremo or Birmalux, but there are very few of them. Weinmann's good, too. If you can get a bike for 'little' money, you also have some spare parts--always a great thing to have.

A while bike is certainly an option but I'm yet to see one with enough original parts in decent order at a good price.

I've probably seen a pretty even spread of the above list although all very infrequent except for full wheels. There was a set of wheels with HF Lambert hubs and decent order Birmalux rims with 1 QR missing recently on Hilary Stone for approx £60 but I moved too slow.

I also wouldn't want to buy a full bike to strip because then I'd have killed an original Viscount

Lewisg - but you could get a half decent bike with good qr wheels, and just leave it hung up in the shed and do a swap with the wheels on the donor bike every now and then?
So not a complete cannibalisation, which as you point out, is a crime under the Geneva Convention where Viscount bikes are involved.

Just glanced at the CTC forum topic page for fun and was totally blown away on our Viscount Bicycles!! topic. The numbers dwarf everything else out there; 139 page, over 170,000 views and 2000+ responses. SIMPLY AMAZING A treasure of information and inspiration

I spotted a Victor out in the wild (round town today)...

Had a chat with the owner and he knew a little about Viscount- the bike was given to him by his brother in law and he had it from new.

He rides it most days and he was loading up his panniers from a spot of shopping.

I have never seen one in the flesh and was a bit puzzled by the lugless joints on the rear but then the really ornate lug
work on the front...very unusual.

It was pretty much all original except for replacement bars.

Looked great and I had to really resist asking him if he was ever thinking of selling



photo 1 by Sooper 8, on Flickr

Great town / pub bike. Mind you, I think it was well demonstrated on the Death Fork Rally that all Viscounts make excellent pub bikes

Whippet wrote:Great town / pub bike. Mind you, I think it was well demonstrated on the Death Fork Rally that all Viscounts make excellent pub bikes

Boom boom, it's the way you tell 'em Kev!!